[Hidden-tech] Pay-as-you-go Internet access?

[Jonathan Dill]

David Spound wrote:

>I am looking for suggestions for inexpensive dial-up Internet access for the
>infrequent occasions (perhaps 2 or 3 times per year) when I am traveling
>with my computer to a location that does not provide broadband access. I
>used to maintain an Earthlink dial-up account when I traveled more often,
>but it does not make sense for me to pay about $8-12 per month for such an
>infrequent need. I have Comcast cable in my home office and they don¹t offer
>a companion dial up service as some providers do. Has anyone ever heard of a
>pay-per-use service?
>  
>
I have never heard of pay-per-use dial-up service.  I wonder if anybody 
has a prepaid service, where you can buy minutes, that might work.

If you don't mind working out of places like Panera and McDonalds, you 
might be able to find free WiFi hot spots that you could use--if you're 
always going to the same few places, you could probably scope it out and 
find a few free spots you can use, but if you're always going to 
different places, it might be too unpredictable to rely on.  Another 
option that I think is questionable, but always predictable, is that 
driving through residential areas you can find lots of insecure WiFi 
networks like with NetStumbler--I tried it just for fun driving to/from 
work one day and I found like 50.  You can also find pay-per-use hot 
spots, but so far that I have found they are expensive.  Some places, I 
think you may need an account, like with T-Mobile, and that is expensive 
usually an even more expensive monthly fee than dial-up.

You could use free service from NetZero or Juno, that used to be good 
for up to 10 hrs per week.  It only works with Windows last time I 
checked it out because it uses a proprietary authentication method, but 
you might be able to run it in something like Crossover Office or 
Win4Lin on Linux.  Someone once told me they had 10 hr per week service 
from AOL for about $5 per month, but I don't know if you can even get 
that anymore.  Earthlink is one of the few big carriers that I have 
found that works with Linux.

Jonathan